AN INVOCATION1

SWEET Muse! companion of my every hour!
Voice of my Joy! Sure soother of the sigh!
Now plume thy pinions, now exert each power,
And fly to him who owns the candid eye.
And if a smile of Praise thy labour hail
(Well shall thy labours then my mind employ)
Fly fleetly back, sweet Muse! and with the tale
O'erspread my Features with a flush of Joy!

1790.

ANNA AND HARLAND 2
WITHIN these wilds was Anna wont to rove
While Harland told his love in many a sigh,
But stern on Harland roll'd her brother's eye,
They fought, they fell-her brother and her love!
To Death's dark house did grief-worn Anna haste,
Yet here her pensive ghost delights to stay;
Oft pouring on the winds the broken lay-
And hark, I hear her 'twas the passing blast.

I love to sit upon her tomb's dark grass,

Then Memory backward rolls Time's shadowy tide;
The tales of other days before me glide:

With eager thought I seize them as they pass;
For fair, tho' faint, the forms of Memory gleam,

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Like Heaven's bright beauteous bow reflected in the stream.

? 1790.

TO THE EVENING STAR 3

O MEEK attendant of Sol's setting blaze,
I hail, sweet star, thy chaste effulgent glow;
On thee full oft with fixéd eye I gaze

Till I, methinks, all spirit seem to grow.

1 First published in 1893, from an autograph MS.

2 First printed in the Cambridge Intelligencer, Oct. 15, 1794. First collected P. and D. W., 1880, Supplement, ii. 359. The text is that of 1880 and 1893, which follow a MS. version.

3 First published in P. and D. W., 1880, Supplement, ii. 359, from

MS. O.

Anna and Harland-Title] Anna and Henry C. I.

I Along this glade C. I. 2 Henry C. I. 3 stern] dark C. I. 5 To her cold grave did woe-worn C. I.

Henry C. I.

stray C. I. 7 the] a C. 1.
11 tales] forms C. I.
stream. C. I.

Harland] 6 stay]

9 dark] dank C. 1. To Then] There C. I. 14 Like Heaven's bright bow reflected on the

O first and fairest of the starry choir,

O loveliest 'mid the daughters of the night, Must not the maid I love like thee inspire Pure joy and calm Delight?

Must she not be, as is thy placid sphere

Serenely brilliant? Whilst to gaze a whileTM Be all my wish 'mid Fancy's high career

E'en till she quit this scene of earthly toil; Then Hope perchance might fondly sigh to join Her spirit in thy kindred orb, O Star benign!

? 1790.

PAIN1

ONCE Could the Morn's first beams, the healthful breeze,
All Nature charm, and gay was every hour:-
But ah! not Music's self, nor fragrant bower
Can glad the trembling sense of wan Disease.
Now that the frequent pangs my frame assail,
Now that my sleepless eyes are sunk and dim,
And seas of Pain seem waving through each limb-
Ah what can all Life's gilded scenes avail?

I view the crowd, whom Youth and Health inspire,
Hear the loud laugh, and catch the sportive lay,
Then sigh and think-I too could laugh and play
And gaily sport it on the Muse's lyre,

Ere Tyrant Pain had chas'd away delight,

Ere the wild pulse throbb'd anguish thro' the night!

? 1790.

ON A LADY WEEPING 2

IMITATION FROM THE LATIN OF NICOLAUS ARCHIUS

LOVELY gems of radiance meek

Trembling down my Laura's cheek,

As the streamlets silent glide
Thro' the Mead's enamell'd pride,
Pledges sweet of pious woe,

Tears which Friendship taught to flow,

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5

10

5

'First published in 1834. 2 First published in 1893. From MS. 0 (c).

Pain-Title] Pain, a Sonnet MS. 0: Sonnet Composed in Sickness MS. 3 But ah! nor splendid feasts MS. O (c). 12 Muse's] festive MS. 0, MS. 0 (c).

? 1790.

Sparkling in yon humid light
Love embathes his pinions bright:
There amid the glitt'ring show'r
Smiling sits th' insidious Power;
As some wingéd Warbler oft

When Spring-clouds shed their treasures soft
Joyous tricks his plumes anew,

And flutters in the fost'ring dew.

MONODY ON A TEA-KETTLE1

O MUSE who sangest late another's pain,
To griefs domestic turn thy coal-black steed!
With slowest steps thy funeral steed must go,
Nodding his head in all the pomp of woe:
Wide scatter round each dark and deadly weed,
And let the melancholy dirge complain,

ΤΟ

(Whilst Bats shall shriek and Dogs shall howling run) The tea-kettle is spoilt and Coleridge is undone !

Your cheerful songs, ye unseen crickets, cease!
Let songs of grief your alter'd minds engage!
For he who sang responsive to your lay,
What time the joyous bubbles 'gan to play,
The sooty swain has felt the fire's fierce rage ;-
Yes, he is gone, and all my woes increase;
I heard the water issuing from the wound-

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15

No more the Tea shall pour its fragrant steams around!
O Goddess best belov'd! Delightful Tea!
With thee compar'd what yields the madd'ning Vine?
Sweet power! who know'st to spread the calm delight,
And the pure joy prolong to midmost night!
Ah! must I all thy varied sweets resign?
Enfolded close in grief thy form I see;

No more wilt thou extend thy willing arms,

Receive the fervent Jove, and yield him all thy charms!

20

1 First published in 1834, from MS. 0. The text of 1893 follows an autograph MS. in the Editor's possession.

their heads MS. S. T. C.

Monody] Muse that late sang another's poignant pain MS. S. T. C. 3 In slowest steps the funeral steeds shall go MS. S. T. C. 4 Nodding 5 each deadly weed MS. S. T. C. 8 The] 9 songs] song MS. S. T. C. 15 issuing] hissing 16 pour] throw MS. S. T. 0. steams steam MS. S. T. C. Vine] Wine MS. S. T. C. 19 who] that 21 various charms MS. S. T. C. 23 extend] expand

His MS. S. T. C.
MS. S. T. C.

18 thee] whom MS. S. T. C.

MS. S. T. C.

MS. S. T. C.

How sink the mighty low by Fate opprest!-
Perhaps, O Kettle! thou by scornful toe
Rude urg'd t' ignoble place with plaintive din,
May'st rust obscure midst heaps of vulgar tin ;-
As if no joy had ever seiz'd my breast

25

When from thy spout the streams did arching fly,— 30
As if, infus'd, thou ne'er hadst known t' inspire
All the warm raptures of poetic fire!

But hark! or do I fancy the glad voice

'What tho' the swain did wondrous charms disclose

(Not such did Memnon's sister sable drest)

35

Take these bright arms with royal face imprest,
A better Kettle shall thy soul rejoice,

And with Oblivion's wings o'erspread thy woes!'
Thus Fairy Hope can soothe distress and toil;
On empty Trivets she bids fancied Kettles boil!

1790.

GENEVIEVE1

MAID of my Love, sweet Genevieve!
In Beauty's light you glide along:

40

1 First published in the Cambridge Intelligencer for Nov. 1, 1794: included in the editions of 1796, 1803, 1828, 1829, and 1834. Three MSS. are extant; (1) an autograph in a copy-book made for the family [MS. 0]; (2) an autograph in a copy-book presented to Mrs. Estlin [MS. E]; and 3) a transcript included in a copy-book presented to Sara Coleridge in 1823 [MS. 0 (c). In an unpublished letter dated Dec. 18, 1807, Coleridge invokes the aid of Richard ['Conservation'] Sharp on behalf of a ‘Mrs. Brewman, who was elected a nurse to one of the wards of Christ's Hospital at the time that I was a boy there'. He says elsewhere that he spent full half the time from seventeen to eighteen in the sick ward of Christ's Hospital. It is doubtless to this period, 1789-90, that Pain and Genevieve, which, according to a Christ's Hospital tradition, were inspired by his 'Nurse's Daughter', must be assigned.

'This little poem was written when the Author was a boy '-Note 1796, 1803.

25 How low the mighty sink MS. S. T. C. 30-1

29 seiz'd] chear'd MS. S. T. C. When from thy spout the stream did arching flow As if, inspir'd MS. S. T. C.

33 the glad] Georgian MS. S. T. C. 34 the swain] its form MS. S. T. C. 35 Note. A parenthetical reflection of the Author's. MS. 0. wing MS. S. T. C.

38 wings]

Genevieve-Title] Sonnet iii. MS. 0: Ode MS. E: A Sonnet MS. 0 (c) : Effusion xvii. 1796. The heading, Generiere, first appears in 1803.

2 Thou glid'st along [so, too, in 11. 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 13, 14] MS. 0, MS. E, MS. 0 (c), C. I.

Your eye is like the Star of Eve,
And sweet your voice, as Seraph's song.
Yet. not your heavenly beauty gives
This heart with Passion soft to glow:
Within your soul a voice there lives!
It bids you hear the tale of Woe.
When sinking low the sufferer wan
Beholds no hand outstretch'd to save,
Fair, as the bosom of the Swan
That rises graceful o'er the wave,
I've seen your breast with pity heave,
And therefore love I you, sweet Genevieve!

1789-90.

ON RECEIVING AN ACCOUNT THAT HIS ONLY SISTER'S DEATH WAS INEVITABLE1

THE tear which mourn'd a brother's fate scarce dry-
Pain after pain, and woe succeeding woe--

Is my heart destin'd for another blow?

O my sweet sister! and must thou too die?
Ah! how has Disappointment pour'd the tear
O'er infant Hope destroy'd by early frost!

How are ye gone, whom most my soul held dear!
Scarce had I lov'd you ere I mourn'd you lost;
Say, is this hollow eye, this heartless pain,
Fated to rove thro' Life's wide cheerless plain-
Nor father, brother, sister meet its ken-

My woes, my joys unshared! Ah! long ere then
On me thy icy dart, stern Death, be prov'd ;--
Better to die, than live and not be lov'd!

1791.

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1 First published in 1834. The brother' (line 1) was Luke Herman Coleridge who died at Thorverton in 1790. Anne Coleridge, the poet's sister (the only daughter of his father's second marriage), died in March 1791.

outstretch'd] stretcht out

4 Thy voice is lovely as the MS. E: Thy voice is soft, &c. MS. 0 (c), C. I. 8 It bids thee hear the tearful plaint of woe MS. E. Io no... save] no friendly hand that saves MS. E. MS. 0, MS. 0 (c), C. I. On receiving, &c.-Title] I tear] tears MS. 0. gone] flown MS. 0, Mother MS. 0.

12 the wave] quick-rolling waves MS. E.
Sonnet v. MS. Ö.

4 O my sweet sister must thou die MS. 0.
10 Fated] Destin'd MS. 0.

7

II father]